First Plaintiff in Series of Personal Injury Lawsuits Against DePuy All-Metal Hip Replacements Receives $8.3 Million
The first bellwether trial against Johnson & Johnson and their subsidiary DePuy Orthopedics reached a verdict – and the jury ruled for $8.3 Million in the plaintiff’s favor.
Loren Kransky is a Vietnam War veteran and former prison guard, who had a hip replacement with DePuy’s all-metal ASR XL hip replacement device in 2007, and after suffering 25 surgical procedures and a host of medical problems, he finally had the device removed in 2012.
“I didn’t want to have the hip done because I had 25 surgical procedures done prior to that,” Kransky told jurors. “I thought that surgery was going to kill me. I thought I was going to die … I came to believe that I was going to have to do it because I was told that something in my body was poisoning me. I was told it could be the hip. I thought, ‘I’m going to die either way.’ One way would be slow and one would be fast. I took the lesser of two evils.”
In 2010, J&J/Ethicon recalled 93,000 of the ASR all-metal hip replacement devices worldwide, because 12 percent failed within 5 years.
“This is not an imperfect hip, this is a public health disaster,” Kransky’s attorney Michael Kelly said in closing arguments on Feb. 28 after a five-week trial. “Somebody needs to tell them, ‘Don’t make Bill Kransky come to court. Build these things right. Don’t let this happen again.’”
Kransky’s lawsuit is the first bellwether trial in an MDL with nearly 11,000 personal injury lawsuits against the medical manufacturer for the faulty hip devices. As a bellwether trial, the ruling has set a standard for other juries in future trials.
Punitive Damages Against DePuy Not Included
The $8.3 million awarded to Mr. Kransky, however, is compensatory damages, not punitive damages against DePuy for either ignoring the problem or intentionally marketing a faulty device.
Mr. Kransky received $338,136 for his health care costs related to the faulty all-metal hip device, and another $8 million for emotional pain and suffering. Punitive damages would have been awarded if the jury decided that DePuy committed “fraud or malice” with their creation and marketing of the product, which could have amounted to $179 million.
However, the jury decided that DePuy did not commit negligence or fraud with its ASR all-metal hip replacement device. They also ruled that his “diabetes, cancer, kidney disease, heart disease, vascular disease and his many other health problems are unrelated” to his hip.
Johnson & Johnson and their subsidiary DePuy have set aside about $1 billion to cover the potential costs of the lawsuit.
The Strom Law Firm Can Help with DePuy ASR and Pinnacle Metal Hip Replacement Injury Lawsuits
The metal hip replacement devices manufactured by DePuy are dangerous. The FDA said: “It is known that over time, the metal particles around some implants can cause damage to bone and/or tissue surrounding the implant and joint.” In addition, the FDA adds that there are a “small number of patients in which high levels of metal ions in the bloodstream may have caused other types of symptoms or illnesses elsewhere in the body, including effects on the heart, nervous system, and thyroid gland.”
In August 2010, DePuy recalled a number of their metal hip replacement devices. Currently, the DePuy Pinnacle Acetabular Cup System has not been made a part of that recall.
If you or a loved one has received a metal hip replacement device, specifically from DePuy Orthopedics, and have since suffered painful side effects, you may be entitled to compensation. The attorneys at the Strom Law Firm can help. We offer free, confidential consultations to discuss the facts of your case, so do not hesitate to contact us. 803.252.4800.
